The Research Into Wang Anshi's Viewpoint On Justice And Interests

The issue of justice and interests is not only the core one in the ideological history of Chinese traditional ethical values, but also a major theoretical one discussed since ancient times and constantly changing with the times. The issue of justice and interests is running through the whole process of the development history of human ethical thought, through all aspects and research realm of the ethics theory, through all links of human moral life. Either ethicist or any Ethics School have to answer this question. Our era is developing, and our society is progressing, therefore there are always different outlook on justice and interests in different era, classes, regions, even the political group within different classes. Many thinkers in China's ideological history of ethical thinking has made great contributions to the moral progress of mankind. Wang Anshi, a distinguished historical figure who integrated politicians, reformers, writers and thinkers,whose concept of justice and interests is important and often been overlooked.Wang Anshi's viewpoint on justice and interests is the product of social reality of North-Song Dynasty. Ever since the middle-Tang, with the development of productive forces and the increased skills of labor, the economy of rent in kind was replaced by the service economy, which makes the economic structure of Song Dynasty tremendously changed, that is, personal dependence hierarchy order was more loosened than the previous dynasty, a portion of laborers were liberated from the feudal land specializing in commercial business. Therefore, developed urban economy emerged in the Song Dynasty. The prosperity of urban economy highlighted the ethical spirits of profit, and affirmed the value of profit to a certain degree. At the same time, Song dynasty is one characterized by a weak force and strong civilization, and constantly humiliated and perished by the alien regime"redundant"soldiers"redundant officials". Therefore, Wang Anshi's viewpoint on justice and interests was generated from the era background of the accumulated poor and weak political reality featuring redundant soldiers, officials and fees.Traditional Ethical thinking on justice and interests and theory of human nature provided theoretical basis for Wang Anshi's outlook on justice and interests. The theory of human nature in traditional Ethical thinking history is mainly as follows, that is, The theory advanced by Mencius that human nature is good from birth, the theory put forward by Xunzi that human nature is evil from birth, the theory put forward by Shishuo that human nature is both good and evil from birth, the Sanpin theory advanced by Dong Zhongshu, the theory put forward by Yangxiong that human nature is mixed goodness and evilness, and the Sanpin theory of disposition advanced by Hanyu .with respect to the matter of justice and interests, there are mainly Confucian theory that emphasized justice but despised interests, Fajia theory that emphasized interests but despised justice, Taoism that attached no importance to interests and justice, and Mohist that attached equal importance to interests and justice.Traditional Ethical thinking on justice and interests and concept of human nature provided theoretical basis for Wang Anshi's outlook on justice and interests. Wang Anshi formed his concept of human nature, that is, the good and evil emerged from the habit and custom, and character originated from five things through critically drawing on his predecessors'outlook on justice and interests and theory of human Nature, whose theory of human nature is not only an important part but also the theoretical basis of his the viewpoint on justice and interests. On this basis Wang Anshi constructed his viewpoint on justice and interests with"unification by interests"and"financing by justice"as the main content. Wang Anshi's viewpoint on justice and interests injected fresh blood into traditional thought on justice and interests, promoting ethical thought featuring utilitarianism. The main contents of Wang Ansh's outlook on justice and interests are as follows: theory of unity of justice and interests,and theory of financing by justice. He thought in theory of unity of justice and interests that, there are kinds of contents in"Justice":"Financing","Rich the country", and"benefit common people", and that there are differences between"public interest"and"private interest"in"interest"while"public benefit"is merely the"justice."At the same time, Wang Anshi acknowledged individual interests ,thinking that the material interests stressed by individual displays human nature, only appropriate material interests of the individual meted can moral civilization be implemented, and society be stable. However, the material interests of the individual can not be unlimited expansion, should be restricted by the three moral principles,"accumulation wealth by fair means","make the rich lose to fill the poor", and"cheek oneself by courtesy". The main contents of theory of unity of justice and interests are as follows: On the one hand, which comes first as to justice and interests, The proposal that interest first, justice second advanced by Wang Anshi is in stark contrast to traditional Confucian moral theory that justice first, interest second. On the other hand, which is weighting as to justice and interests, Wang Anshi thought that the two are unified each other, and should be equally stressed. Mohist proposed that justice and interests should be equally stressed, but merely recognized public interest, that is, didn't recognize the interests of the individual, and the moral values while satisfying the interests of the individual .Therefore, there are differences and connections between Wang Anshi's theory of unity of justice and interests and Mohist's theory of equal importance as to justice and interests. Wang Anshi's viewpoint on justice and interests broke the phenomenon of besieged fortress that which comes first as to justice and interests .Therefore, his viewpoint on justice and interests was complete. He both gave a new interpretation of"justice"and differentiate between"private-interest"and"public benefit"as well as the relationship between them, and saw both the necessity of material interest(interest)and the importance of the moral (justice )and the relationship between them, stressed that the material interests was both the starting point and the destination of the moral ,and the uniformity between the moral and material interests, which is undoubtedly an open betrayal of traditional mainstream viewpoint on justice and interests that stress justice and overlook interests ,hence, besieged by Neo-Confucianism. Internal financing and external financing management are the two aspects of Wang Anshi's financing by justice. The essence of internal financing is the adjustment of the structure and layout of wealth, implementing change under the condition that kept imperial power of North-Song Dynasty unchanged, strengthening the central government's control over the financial power, returning the enormous amount of money falling on the rich to the central government so as to the state monopoly important commodities and regroup the social capital to achieve the purpose of rich the country and make the arms strong. External financing meant creating social wealth through development of agriculture and transformation of the nature.The evaluation of viewpoint on justice and interests by Wang Anshi is mainly as follows: negative evaluation of ancient"moral theory"and positive evaluation modern"utilitarian theory". Ancient"moral theory"comes mainly from two aspects: On the one hand, negative evaluation of the feudal autocratic,"political unification", on the other hand, the negation of"Dao unification"of Neo-Confucianism. Zhuxi conducted negation from the perspective of"Dao learning"within"Dao unification", and Lu Jiuyuan conducted criticism from the angle of"Respect Virtue""Road unification"within"Dao unification". There are three kinds of positive evaluation in Utilitarian theory", Ancient utilitarian theory, such as Chengliang and Yeshi; modern bourgeois utilitarian theory, for example, Liang Qichao and utilitarian theory of Marxism, for instance, Deng Guangming. The moral theory negated Wang Anshi's viewpoint on justice and interests from the perspective of traditional"justice", while utilitarian theory negated it from the perspective of justice.Wang Anshi's viewpoint on justice and interests has not only important theoretical reference value of moral but also fresh moral practice of moral to moral-building of China's building a socialist harmonious society. At the same time, it not only contributes to develop business ethics but also counteract the rampant materialism of modern society in socialist market economy.